The Single Spiritual Habit That Strengthens All Others

There is one key discipline of the Christian life that impacts all the other disciplines—and should never be neglected.

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You guessed it: Reading your Bible.

It may seem obvious that Christians should daily study and meditate on the Word of God, but let’s face the brutal reality:

Most Christians don’t.

I technically don’t have the exact statistics to prove the above statement, but my twenty years of full-time ministry experience has given me more than enough anecdotal evidence to show me that, by and large, believers say in principle they would like to read their Bibles with regular consistency, but in practice they don’t actually live out this consistency.

The reasons why almost always relate to “time,” or the lack thereof.

Interestingly, as a society, our social media and video streaming consumption have seemingly risen to an all-time high.

Could it be that “time” is not really the main issue? Rather, might it not be a “want to” problem?

Generally speaking, we “make" time for the things that interest us. I’ve known all kinds of people who “make” time to attend their kids’ and grandkids’ sports activities. For others, despite long workweeks, they are able to “squeeze” in extra time (whether late nights or weekends) to remodel their kitchen or bathroom.

But to “make” an extra ten minutes per day to read even a chapter or two of God’s most holy Word—nah, no thanks. Blah, blah, blah.

Yet the serious intake of Scripture is truly the gift that keeps on giving.

How serious are you about hiding God’s Word in your heart?